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Pig: A Supernatural Thriller
Meadville, Pennsylvania is a small college town nestled at the foot of a strange little mountain called Round Top. Some call it Pig Mountain.
Legend has it that a sinister race of people live up the Pig People of Round Top, strange and dangerous mutants that steal women. Women have been disappearing from town for years, gone without a trace. Some are convinced it’s The Pig People, taking the women to breed. Nobody really knows. But the town is on edge, gone fearful of the night.
Carrie Owens has heard the story, but doesn’t believe it. She knows terror has other faces, for she volunteers at the local battered women’s shelter. She doesn’t give credence to the boogeyman. Until one night it becomes her reality.
PIG is a poignant story of obsession, love, and the terrible consequences of what happens when reality and fantasy blur. It is a tale of the remarkable power of the mind and how it will do anything to protect itself.
Legend has it that a sinister race of people live up the Pig People of Round Top, strange and dangerous mutants that steal women. Women have been disappearing from town for years, gone without a trace. Some are convinced it’s The Pig People, taking the women to breed. Nobody really knows. But the town is on edge, gone fearful of the night.
Carrie Owens has heard the story, but doesn’t believe it. She knows terror has other faces, for she volunteers at the local battered women’s shelter. She doesn’t give credence to the boogeyman. Until one night it becomes her reality.
PIG is a poignant story of obsession, love, and the terrible consequences of what happens when reality and fantasy blur. It is a tale of the remarkable power of the mind and how it will do anything to protect itself.
232 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 18, 2020
About the author
Nancy Williams
99 books4 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 27, 2022
Only giving it a 1.5 because it takes place in Meadville, PA. Weird weird book.
October 9, 2026
Pig starts as a regional urban legend—the pig people of Round Top, or Pig Hill, and the women who have gone missing from Meadville for years—and turns into something quiet and disturbing. At no point does Nancy Williams rush the monster. The horror creeps in through streets, woods, and local rumors until the line between what the town believes and what the characters can actually bear starts to dissolve.
What carries it is the character work. Carrie and the people around her feel damaged in specific, believable ways rather than sketched in to serve a scare. Williams is especially good at people whose sense of reality has already been bent by trauma, obsession, and the need to protect themselves. The dread builds in the gaps: what they won’t say, what they misremember, what they keep returning to. Some of the strongest passages aren’t frightening so much as unsettling, and the twists land because the people and their actions have been earned.
That slow, eerie climb is also why the book feels built for adaptation. The legend gives it a visual hook, but the real material is in the interior—memory, sexuality, abuse, and a mind that rewrites what it cannot face. It’s less a question of whether pig people live on the mountain than of what happens when the monsters inside become impossible to separate from the ones outside. It’s easy to see why the story moved to the screen as Pig Hill; the novel already reads like something you watch with the lights low (but not too low).
I’d recommend Pig to anyone who wants psychological horror with an atmospheric, increasingly uneasy tone rather than a straight monster story.
What carries it is the character work. Carrie and the people around her feel damaged in specific, believable ways rather than sketched in to serve a scare. Williams is especially good at people whose sense of reality has already been bent by trauma, obsession, and the need to protect themselves. The dread builds in the gaps: what they won’t say, what they misremember, what they keep returning to. Some of the strongest passages aren’t frightening so much as unsettling, and the twists land because the people and their actions have been earned.
That slow, eerie climb is also why the book feels built for adaptation. The legend gives it a visual hook, but the real material is in the interior—memory, sexuality, abuse, and a mind that rewrites what it cannot face. It’s less a question of whether pig people live on the mountain than of what happens when the monsters inside become impossible to separate from the ones outside. It’s easy to see why the story moved to the screen as Pig Hill; the novel already reads like something you watch with the lights low (but not too low).
I’d recommend Pig to anyone who wants psychological horror with an atmospheric, increasingly uneasy tone rather than a straight monster story.
July 24, 2023
This book is very good, it is a master class at plot twist and story depth. It will hit every single emotional cord in you in some way I promise. This story has it all, love, grief, thriller, horror and mystery. It is not an extreme horror or a splatter punk but is very very heavy on extreme subject matter and I think this book is not getting to the right readers, and I say that based on the reviews I read prior to reading the book.
This book takes place where I grew up and the descriptions are great and I can picture everything clearly, is that why I like it so much? I don’t believe so, I thinks it’s how well crafted this story is. I wish the cover was different and the marketing was different but above all else’s I loved this book.
This book takes place where I grew up and the descriptions are great and I can picture everything clearly, is that why I like it so much? I don’t believe so, I thinks it’s how well crafted this story is. I wish the cover was different and the marketing was different but above all else’s I loved this book.
November 10, 2026
Small-town legends always make for great horror. Same when it comes to pigs. Throw in mysterious creatures lurking in the woods and people disappearing, and you've got the makings of a creepy tale. In Pig, Nancy Williams draws on the legend of the Pig People of Meadville, Pennsylvania, blending folklore with psychological horror.
Williams weaves together mystery, trauma, obsession, and superstition, blurring the lines between reality and the unexplained. The rural setting adds to the unsettling atmosphere, creating a sense of isolation and unease.
The story flows well, with natural dialogue that moves the plot forward while revealing the characters' personalities and motivations. It's engaging and character-driven. Great read!
Williams weaves together mystery, trauma, obsession, and superstition, blurring the lines between reality and the unexplained. The rural setting adds to the unsettling atmosphere, creating a sense of isolation and unease.
The story flows well, with natural dialogue that moves the plot forward while revealing the characters' personalities and motivations. It's engaging and character-driven. Great read!
November 22, 2021
3/5
The story was okay, nothing about it was bad. However, the pacing was off and what was lined up to be an absolute thriller, landed somewhere shy of that. Ms. Williams is incredibly skilled at painting the scene and that should not be overlooked. She includes just enough detail, keeping the reader feeling interested and like they’re right there, but not going overboard as so bore the reader.
The story was okay, nothing about it was bad. However, the pacing was off and what was lined up to be an absolute thriller, landed somewhere shy of that. Ms. Williams is incredibly skilled at painting the scene and that should not be overlooked. She includes just enough detail, keeping the reader feeling interested and like they’re right there, but not going overboard as so bore the reader.
October 31, 2024
A poignant story about how the mind builds walls and channels to survive trauma, Nancy Williams' Pig is not done justice by either it's blurb or odd cover - both of which seem to suggest are more straight supernatural horror over the psychological thriller contained within the pages.
Vivid characters rendered beautifully with some sometimes overwritten dialogue, at times gorgeous prose, and an effortless pace make Pig yet another independent reading experience you should not miss
Vivid characters rendered beautifully with some sometimes overwritten dialogue, at times gorgeous prose, and an effortless pace make Pig yet another independent reading experience you should not miss
June 3, 2023
I expecting more of a modern horror genre, but it felt more like a gothic romance. I liked the character development; it made them matter. The urban legend itself made me wonder, "did they just steal from 'House on the Borderland'".
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews